A source at the Qatar-based broadcaster, which is caught up in an economic and diplomatic dispute between Qatar and other Arab powers, said a technical issue had been to blame.

Doha: Pan-Arab satellite network Al Jazeera said on Saturday the Twitter account for its main Arabic language channel was back up and running after briefly being suspended.

A source at the Qatar-based broadcaster, which is caught up in an economic and diplomatic dispute between Qatar and other Arab powers, said a technical issue had been to blame.

On another of its Twitter feeds, the broadcaster had earlier tweeted: "The account of al Jazeera on twitter @ajarabic is currently suspended due to what seems to be an organised campaign and we are doing the necessary work to get the service back." It did not say who was behind the alleged campaign.

The @ajarabic account later resumed, with a message saying: "We bring the attention of our followers to the fact that our main al jazeera account @ajarabic is now working again."

No comment was immediately available from Twitter.

Al Jazeera is the flagship broadcaster for Qatar, which is the target of a diplomatic and economic boycott by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain, in a stand-off that is endangering stability in the region.

The other Arab powers accuse Qatar of supporting Islamist militants, which it denies, and some of them have criticised Al Jazeera as a terrorist mouthpiece and an agent of interference in their affairs.

The network has rejected those accusations and said it will maintain its editorial independence.